Okinawa: the junk heap of the Pacific

Decades of Pentagon pollution poison service members, residents and future plans for the island
In June, construction workers unearthed more than 20 rusty barrels from beneath a soccer pitch in Okinawa City.
The land had once been part of Kadena Air Base the Pentagons largest installation in the Pacific region but
was returned to civilian usage in 1987. Tests revealed that the barrels contained two ingredients of military
defoliants used in the Vietnam War: the herbicide 2,4,5-T and 2,3,7,8,-TCDD dioxin. Levels of the highly toxic
TCDD in nearby water measured 280 times the safe limit.
The Pentagon has repeatedly denied storing of defoliants including Agent Orange on Okinawa. Following the
discovery, it distanced itself from the barrels; a spokesperson said the Defense Department was investigating
whether they had been buried after the lands return in 1987, and a U.S. government-sponsored scientist suggested
they may merely have contained kitchen or medical waste. However, the conclusions of the Japanese and
international scientific community were unequivocal: Not only did the barrels disprove Pentagon denials of the
PDFmyURL.com
presence of military defoliants in Japan, but the polluted land also posed a threat to the health of local residents
and required immediate remediation.
The Pentagon is the largest polluter on the planet, producing more toxic waste than the top three U.S. chemical
manufacturers combined. In 2008, 25,000 of its properties within the U.S. were found to be contaminated, and more
than 100 of these were classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as Superfund sites, meaning they
warranted urgent cleanup.
Although Okinawas main island hosts more than 30 U.S. bases taking up 20 percent of its land there has
never been a concerted attempt to investigate levels of contamination within them. Unlike other nations with U.S.
bases, such as South Korea and Germany, the Japanese government has no effective powers to conduct
environmental checks; nor does the Pentagon have a duty to disclose to the public any contamination that it knows
exists. To date, most incidents of pollution have only become known when individual service members have
divulged details to the media or, as in the case of the barrels uncovered in Okinawa City, the Japanese authorities
have conducted tests following the return of military land.
Despite their limited scope, such disclosures offer a disturbing window into the contamination of Okinawa. Over the
past seven decades, the islands sea, land and air have been contaminated with toxins including arsenic, depleted
uranium, nerve gas and carcinogenic hexavalent chromium (see the accompanying timeline). These substances have
poisoned Okinawan civilians and U.S. troops alike and it is highly probable that they are damaging the health of
those living on the island today. But, regardless of these risks, the Pentagon continues to do everything it can to
evade responsibility for the damage its bases cause.
The history of U.S. pollution on Okinawa is almost as long as its ongoing military presence. Following the end of
World War II, Okinawa earned the nickname the junk heap of the Pacific due to the large volume of surplus
supplies abandoned there. During this period, one of the first known instances of contamination occurred when
eight residents of Iheya village were killed by arsenic poisoning from a nearby U.S. compound in 1947.
PDFmyURL.com
The 1952 Treaty of San Francisco granted the Pentagon full control of Okinawa and, as the military seized large
tracts of civilian land to convert into bases, the dangers of pollution grew. Fuel leaks saturated the ground,
industrial-grade detergents flowed from runways into nearby streams and solvents were flushed away without any
regard to where they ended up.
Although such lax environmental controls were common on U.S. military bases all over the world at this time,
Okinawas problems were exacerbated by the geopolitical gray zone in which it existed. Throughout the 1945-1972
U.S. occupation, the island was not protected by American law or the Japanese Constitution, so the Pentagon stored
large stockpiles of chemical and atomic weapons there and nuclear-powered submarines made regular pit stops
in Okinawa.
In September 1968, Japanese newspapers reported that radioactive cobalt-60 had been detected in Naha Port
believed by scientists to have emanated from visiting U.S. subs. Three Okinawan divers claimed to have been
sickened by their exposure to the substance, which accumulated in mud at the bottom of the harbor.
The next year, the Wall Street Journal broke the news of a leak of nerve gas at Chibana Ammunition Depot, near
Kadena Air Base, that hospitalized more than 20 U.S. service members. Precise details of the subsequent mop-up
operation remained hidden until July this year, when U.S. veterans stationed on the island at the time described how
tons of the chemical munitions had been dumped off Okinawas coast (see Exclusive: Red Hats lethal Okinawa
smokescreen, July 27). Experts estimate that the metal containers holding these poisons corrode after 50 years,
threatening the health of fishing crews and coastal communities today.
During the Vietnam War, Okinawa served as the Pentagons primary staging post for the conflict. Led by the U.S.
Armys 2nd Logistics Division, the military channeled the majority of its supplies including ammunition, coffins
and, it now seems, Agent Orange via the islands ports. This transportation was a two-way street: Surplus and
damaged materiel was also returned from the war zone to Okinawa for reprocessing.
PDFmyURL.com
In 1969, U.S. Army Chemical Corps 2nd Lt. Lindsay Peterson was the officer in charge of these retrograde supplies
at Hamby Open Storage Area, central Okinawa. In a recent interview with The Japan Times, he recalled how
damaged barrels of Agent Orange were among chemicals shipped to the island.
Agent Orange was processed through the port at Naha and trucked to the Hamby Open Storage Area, he said.
When I arrived, there were around 10,000 barrels. Most of them were leaking, so we had to empty them into new
55-gallon [208-liter] drums.
Peterson recalls how the re-drumming process saturated his crew with defoliants. He is among hundreds of seriously
ill U.S. veterans who believe their sicknesses were caused by exposure to dioxin-tainted defoliants while serving on
Okinawa. Although the U.S. government has refused to help the majority of these veterans, in 2008 it awarded
compensation to a former marine warehouseman suffering from Hodgkins lymphoma and type-2 diabetes sparked
by handling Agent Orange-contaminated supplies brought back to Okinawa from the Vietnam War in the early
1970s.
Other U.S. veterans and Okinawa civilians interviewed by The Japan Times recall how surplus stocks of Agent
Orange were sold on the black market to local farmers who valued its potent weed-killing power. The risks of the
unregulated sale of hazardous substances to those lacking the necessary safety training became clear in 1971 when
large volumes of pentachlorophenol herbicides obtained from the U.S. military by a civilian company were
dumped in the Haebaru and Gushikami districts of southern Okinawa. The chemicals leaked into Kokuba River and
the water supply to 30,000 people had to be halted; children attending local schools suffered from abdominal pains
and nausea.
U.S. government correspondence obtained by The Japan Times reveals the reaction of the authorities to such
pollution during this period. In August 1975, following a leak of detergents containing poisonous hexavalent
chromium at Machinato Service Area, the U.S. consulate in Naha sent a series of updates to the State Department in
Washington. Dismissing the spill as a flap, it concluded that the newspapers and the leftists will certainly make
PDFmyURL.com
good use of this issue against us.
In September 1974, the U.S. Consulate had displayed a similar tone when Okinawa Gov. Chobyo Yara voiced his
fears to the U.S. military that its aging oil pipelines might leak. In a cable, the U.S. Consulate in Naha brushed off
the governors concerns, noting the pipeline has now been added to leftist catalogue of evils of U.S. base system.
A little over a year later, in January 1976, Yaras concerns were proven justified when one of the pipelines spilled
14,000 gallons (53,000 liters) of diesel into a local river.
In the 1970s, the Pentagon showed more concern over potential PR damage than the risk to human health; today, its
stance toward the discovery of the dioxin-contaminated barrels in Okinawa City seems identical. Its denials attempt
to protect its image of a good neighbor but in reality, they potentially sacrifice the health of local Okinawans, its
own service members and their dependents. Although the Okinawa City dioxin site is located adjacent to two
Department of Defense schools, it appears that the parents and teachers there have not been informed.
During the 1970s, such neglect could have been blamed on a lack of environmental awareness. However, today in
2013, such a posture is criminal reminiscent of the contamination of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where tens
of thousands of troops and family members were exposed to toxins including pesticides, benzene and industrial
solvents between 1953 and 1987.
The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) the foundation, unchanged since 1960, that spells out the rights and role
of the U.S. military in Japan encourages the Pentagons cavalier approach to pollution. SOFA absolves the U.S. of
all financial responsibility for cleaning up land it has contaminated and does not allow the Japanese authorities to
conduct spot-checks on U.S. military bases.
Given these constraints on access to U.S. installations, Japanese scientists have been forced to improvise. Recently,
experts from Ehime and Meio universities conducted tests on seven mongooses whose habitat included U.S. bases.
Announced in August, the results showed the animals were contaminated with high levels of polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) raising worries that humans living in the same areas may be poisoned, too.
PDFmyURL.com
U.S. military pollution in Okinawa: a timeline
Mongooses aside, the only alternative has been to conduct tests on military land following its return to civilian
control. As in the case of Okinawa City, such checks often reveal dangerous levels of contamination. In Yomitan
village, for example, levels of arsenic 120 times over the legal limit were found on former U.S.-controlled land in
2008. In July this year, asbestos was discovered at a site that used to be a part of Camp Courtney. In this case, the
U.S. authorities appear to have misled the civilian construction company tasked with the cleanup leading to the
suspected exposure of Okinawan workers.
But even after pollution has been detected, the new problem arises of how to deal with it. In September it was
revealed that 322 tons of PCB-laden slurry from former U.S. military land in Okinawa was to be shipped for
disposal to Iwaki city, Fukushima Prefecture a municipality located 50 km from the stricken No. 1 nuclear power
station. Critics of the plan accused the Japanese authorities of exploiting the prefectures need for money and
worsening its already dire pollution problems.
In the coming years, it is likely such troubles will become more pressing. In October, Japans minister of defense,
Itsunori Onodera, reiterated plans to concentrate the U.S. military presence in the northern half of Okinawa Island
a move that will entail the closure of several installations including Machinato Service Area, one of the main
bases where defoliants were allegedly stored, and, ultimately, Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. Experts have
estimated the cleanup of Futenma at $600 million but that was before the cost of Agent Orange remediation had
been figured into calculations.
Okinawa residents have long protested for a future with fewer bases. But even after their wish becomes a reality, it
seems the land theyve fought so hard to retrieve will be uninhabitable for years if not decades to come.
1947: Arsenic contamination at base on Iheya Island kills eight Okinawans.
PDFmyURL.com
1968: Cobalt-60 leaks from nuclear-powered submarine visiting Naha Port.
1969: More than 20 U.S. service members sickened by nerve gas at Chibana Ammunition Depot; following the
accident, tons of chemical weapons allegedly dumped off Okinawas coast (see Exclusive: Red Hats lethal
Okinawa smokescreen, July 27).
1971: Surplus U.S. herbicides containing pentachlorophenol contaminate civilian water supplies in Haebaru and
Gushikami districts.
1975: Large leak of hexavalent chromium at Machinato Service Area; contamination reportedly some 8,000 times
safe standards.
1975: Spill of Vietnam War retrograde chemicals (including herbicides and pesticides) kills sea life near Camp
Kinser.
1976: More than 50,000 liters of fuel leak into stream near Camp Foster.
1981: U.S. Marines unearth cache of over 100 barrels (some suspected of containing Agent Orange) at Marine Corps
Air Station Futenma; top officers apparently hush up the incident (see Agent Orange at base in 80s: U.S. vet,
June 15, 2012).
1995/96: Iwakuni-based U.S. Marine jets fire more than 1,500 shells of depleted uranium at and around Torishima
island; area subsequently declared off-limits due to radiation fears.
1996: Land returned to civilian usage on former Onna Communication Site found to contain dangerous levels of
mercury, cadmium and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
2000: Japan attempts to ship overseas 100 tons of PCBs from U.S. bases; vessel blocked from entry to Canada under
international laws banning export of toxic waste.
PDFmyURL.com
2002: Over 200 barrels containing unidentified tar-like substance unearthed on former military land in Chatan
Town.
2003: High levels of lead and hexavalent chromium discovered on land in Chatan Town that was previously part of
Camp Kuwae.
2007: Almost 9,000 liters of jet fuel leak on Kadena Air Base.
2013: More than 20 barrels of suspected Vietnam War defoliants unearthed on soccer pitch in Okinawa City;
authorities begin to search field for more buried barrels.
Send comments on these issues and story ideas to community@japantimes.co.jp.
Kim Jong Uns ex reportedly executed
Abe and his ministers give anti- foreigner rallies tacit green light
PDFmyURL.com
60 Minutes retracts, apologizes for Benghazi report; CBS says it was misled by a
source
What Your Flight Attendant Wont Tell You
FROM THE WEB
PDFmyURL.com
Recommended by
Dell Deals For Military
www.dell.com/Military
Get Discounts on Computers w/ Intel Core. Shop
Dell.com Now!
FROM THE WEB
PDFmyURL.com
PDFmyURL.com
English teacher suffering with cancer, HIV completes Yamathon Tokyo
walk
Japan brings out the big guns to sell remilitarization in U.S.
Getting published is easy; getting noticed is trickier
Medical bills mount for fired Tokyo English teacher fighting cancer, HIV
PDFmyURL.com
PDFmyURL.com
PDFmyURL.com
PDFmyURL.com
THE JAPAN TIMES LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PDFmyURL.com
PDFmyURL.com